Worker productivity and performance are critical to companies. Workers’ motivation has typically been investigated based on the well-known... Show moreWorker productivity and performance are critical to companies. Workers’ motivation has typically been investigated based on the well-known hierarchical need theory of Maslow (1943), the two-factor need theory of Herzberg (1968), the need theory of Alderfer (1972), and the expectancy theory of Vroom (1964). Construction managers occupy middle management positions and are as important as regular workers to the success of a project. Therefore, construction managers’ motivation should also be investigated. This study investigates the factors that motivate construction managers, and the human value of construction managers. The motivators are extracted from previous studies and the human values from Rokeach’s (1973) work. The relationship between construction managers’ human values and the motivators is explored, which previous studies never attempted before is implemented in this study. 101 out of 1000 construction managers participated in a survey asking them to rate the importance of 20 motivators and 18 human values. Factor analysis was used to reduce the 20 motivators to six factors. Inter-correlation analysis was conducted and the 18 human values were reduced to 9. Multiple regression analysis was conducted between the 9 human values against each one of the motivation factors. However, the R2 were low. Therefore artificial neural networks (ANN) were used to analyze the relationship. The ANN model was able to predict the relationship between human values and each of the six motivational factors with 75% accuracy. If higher executives are able to determine the human values of their construction managers, they should be able to motivate their construction managers by promoting the appropriate motivators. M.S. in Civil Engineering, December 2011 Show less
